In recent years, circuit boards have been designed to be smaller with higher density and there is a tendency that such circuit boards are produced in a small volume for each of different types thereof. Accordingly, in order to mount components onto a small board and to quickly switch components from one type to another, there has been a higher demand for a component mounter with a large number of component mounting stages that are designed each in a compact manner and coupled together. The use of such a component mounter for performing component mounting allows an increase in the number of components mounted per unit area (improvement of area production efficiency).
In the case of mounting components by using a component mounter with multiple component mounting stages coupled together, a component mountable range covered by one mounting head is limited. Onto a board which is long in a transportation direction, mounting all components at one transportation and positioning time is impossible. Hence, in conventional component mounters, components are mounted on such long a board by moving the board at multiple stages in the transportation direction (see Patent Reference 1, for example). Patent Reference 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-287150